...Industrialized Hemp: A Revolutionary Idea PHL 354 Dr. Ozar Decmeber 16, 2010 Abstract: This paper will focus on the potential benefits that legalizing and producing (or “large-scale production of”) industrialized hemp could have on the environment and possibly the economy of the world. I shall argue that the United States should set a precedent and legalize industrialized hemp in order to hopefully spur on similar actions by other countries and world powers across the globe. I will begin by explaining a few of the beneficial uses of industrialized hemp in order to strengthen the case that will be presented in the latter part of the paper. Although the production of hemp has typically been looked down upon, it could in fact be the very thing we need to solve the ecological problems we currently face. I believe that allowing for the growth and sale of industrialized hemp could revolutionize the world and could ultimately save the environment and benefit all of the environmentally unfriendly industries across the world. I will examine the use of hemp to create textiles, renewable fuels, biodegradable plastics, paper, health foods, medicine, etcetera. The legalization of hemp cannot move forward unless we are willing to reexamine and reformulate our societal values. The modern system of agriculture has caused more problems than it has solved over the past few decades. Thus, I will be examining the legalization of hemp in the context of a postmechanistic concept...
Words: 3434 - Pages: 14
...Marijuana has been used all over the world, by people from many different backgrounds and cultures and is dated back as far as 2737 B.C. It wasn't until 1937 that marijuana became illegal in the United States. Marijuana is a very prominent and controversial issue in society today. According to a nationwide Rasmussen poll, as of 2012 fifty-six percent of Americans think marijuana should be legalized and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. Today there are seventeen states that have legalized the use of medicinal marijuana, and two states that have legalized it for recreational use as well. However, in a world where millions of people have died from alcohol and tobacco use, do we really need another legal drug? Many would argue no, but when scientific studies have shown that marijuana is actually less harmful to a person than alcohol or tobacco, it makes no sense to keep it illegal. Marijuana prohibition is simply doing more harm than good to society. In the 1920s, alcohol prohibition led to the widespread proliferation of violent criminal organizations that corrupted politicians and law enforcement officials to illegally peddle booze to otherwise law-abiding citizens. Similarly, by keeping marijuana illegal for the last seventy-five years, we have created a black market that helps fuel some of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world. Legalizing marijuana could take the marijuana business out of the hands of drug cartels, by regulating and taxing marijuana in...
Words: 1132 - Pages: 5
...Release the Green! Marijuana is a very noticeable and scandalous issue in the world today. Although many malicious entitlements have been said about cannabis in current history, the certainties are slowly starting to reappear. Unluckily, these facts are being very heavily criticized because of the clichéd view of what people see as the classic “weed smoker.” This twisted observation of a lazy and unenthusiastic America is the consequence of over seventy years of information and deception spread by private interests who needed weed illegal for their own particular gains. As just a regular citizen and someone that doesn’t even use marijuana, I think that the drug should be legalized for all uses. Consuming marijuana for pharmaceutical purposes is not a new discovery. Actually, written references to consume medical marijuana go back to almost 5,000 years ago (herer, 167). Western treatment included marijuana’s medical properties in the mid-1800s, and by the start of the 20th century, doctors had issued more than 150 credentials in the Western medical literature recommending its use for a variety of disorders (Miron, 117). These conditions include relief from pain, glaucoma, nausea and movement disorders. It can also be used to help patients that have or had HIV/AIDS or cancer patients that have to go through chemotherapy because it motivates their appetites. In our day, thousands of patients are capable of use marijuana as an effective technique of cure for their illnesses. This...
Words: 3266 - Pages: 14
... yet it has been classified as a schedule one drug? Since it has been harvested, hemp has become one of the most popular crops ever grown. Our founding fathers including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, all grew hemp on their estates. In the early 20th Century, hemp was outlawed in the United States; even though it had been one of the major crops in the U.S. and was super beneficial. Hemp can be used for building a stronger concrete than we have right now; it is one the most nutritious foods we can harvest today and can yield more than 400 times the amount of paper which we use from cutting down trees on the same land. Hemp can also improve the environment if cotton was substituted for hemp; plus it creates a stronger and more durable fiber. Today hemp is not illegal but we would be better off if it was completely legal and we could start to use hemp as it was suppose to be used. To get a better understanding, let take a look at the impact hemp has had on the world. “For the past twelve thousand years, industrial hemp has been harvested and used throughout almost every nation in the world” (8). “From its beginning, hemp has been used throughout the world for its fiber, seed, and psychoactive effect” (9). “Ancient Chinese techniques of hemp sowing, cultivation, and processing developed rapidly and became fairly advanced” (10). China would not have been the same if hemp hadn’t been discovered. The psychoactive affects were also discovered in China, and...
Words: 1844 - Pages: 8
...Legalization of Hemp Before you can understand my philosophical belief we must first take a brief look at the history of Marijuana and its more resourceful counterpart Hemp. Hemp has uses for over 20,000 things including fuel, food, construction material, clothing, paint, and even making more durable and longer lasting paper. Hemp was so versatile and heavily cultivated that during the mid-1600 to the early 1800’s you could pay taxes with hemp. There was even a law in Colonial Virginia that made it illegal to not grow hemp. Marijuana was a word created around the 1930’s to slander the good name of hemp. Marijuana, otherwise known as hemp, was quickly regarded as evil and eventually became illegal in September of 1937. Why was this plant that was so heavily cultivated seen as violence causing drug? When, it was in fact used in numerous healing products around the world. Why are we still enforcing this barbaric law when our great ancestors cultivated it for thousands of years? After the prohibition law of marijuana was passed it was known to be the root of all evil. People were soon pumped full of yellow-journalism about this miracle plant saying “Marijuana makes people full of anger” during the 1930’s. When communism was beginning to be suspected in America, marijuana was again falsely linked to “Pacifying soldiers and making them not want to fight”. This legalization of Hemp needs to be now. In today’s world there are so many problems that hemp could easily solve. Hemp oil, which...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
...many reasons why other individuals, including the government, do not. From a utilitarian point view, legalizing marijuana will produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people affected by the choice (Mosser, 2010, sect. 1.7) Misleading perception and harmful effects influence the decision of marijuana remaining illegal. But, the best way to control its use is to legalize it for its positive effects on the environment, medical uses, and revenue it generates for the government; therefore, producing the best results for the greatest number of people. Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America following alcohol and tobacco. It is most commonly smoked out of a pipe, or rolled like a cigarette. The active ingredient in marijuana that causes the “high” followed by smoking it is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC for short. This is the most common perception of individuals who encounter the drug but what is failed to be considered are its environmental advantages. Like marijuana, hemp is another form of the Cannabis plant. It is often confused with marijuana because of its similar leaf shape but contains miniscule amounts of THC. Hemp could play an important role in solutions considering concerns for our eco-system. Hemp can be used in the industrial sense for food, fibers, paper, textiles, etc. Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more...
Words: 1685 - Pages: 7
...The U.S. government spends as much as $20 billion per year to fight the war on Marijuana. Marijuana has been a hot topic lately, and the debates really been heating up. The main question is how much would our country benefit from the legalization of recreational marijuana? Our citizens and political leaders have a chance to cash in on one of the biggest cash crops in existence today. Legalizing marijuana for recreational use has the potential to be very lucrative and beneficial to our country and society. To fully understand the debate on legalizing marijuana, you must know what marijuana is and how it came to be outlawed in the U.S. in the first place. Marijuana is a plant that produces flowers or buds that can be smoked to produce...
Words: 3380 - Pages: 14
...The Beneficial Uses of Hemp Following my father's death, I felt there was some unfinished business that we had not discussed. I searched to find some of my father's thoughts and feeling that I could justify our relationship through. Ironically, I came across a manila envelope, which had contained some of his prized possessions. As I searched through it, I developed a new opinion of the bio mass plant called "Hemp." There were articles showing a hemp bills being passed and farmers wanting to cultivate it within Delta County. There was also a book called "The Emperor Wears No Clothes." It was a book stating compelling facts about the miracle crop Hemp." An article struck me. It told of, Woody Harrison, a well-known actor stating, "He would pick up the tab for Colorado's first hemp crop if state legislators approve the crop." He also stated that you could smoke a pound of it and not get high. (Rice)" In addition 4.6 million members of the American Farm Bureau Federation support Hemp 100 percent. Hemp could be the most abundant natural resource, it can replace 80% of our fossil fuels, and be used for many major medicinal purposes (Kriho). It is essential that we stop the use of all fossil fuels, and deforestation to save Mother Earth. This can be accomplished with the cannabis plant hemp seizing pollution and provide the world with more than enough of its energy needs. According to Jack Herer, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, we're not only the founders of our...
Words: 8791 - Pages: 36
...upon a living thing. Breaking the recreational drug into a more complex version will result in 'hemp' or classified by the US government as a "Schedule 1 controlled substance drug". Along with it's 50,000 possible beneficial uses of the plant, hemp is considered to be the most essential cash crop and indispensible to the strength of the economy. One may ask the vital question, "Why is hemp illegal?" People too often refer to the dangers of cannabis's indigenous outcome, categorized as marijuana. Although...
Words: 1129 - Pages: 5
...grains (grasses) and developed agriculture. Agriculture requires a commitment to the land and grants a steady food supply which enables people to form permanent settlements. Cannabis and Neolithic bands probably came in contact often as plants invaded the fertile clearings — the campsites, roadsides, fields and garbage heaps — that occur wherever people live.”(Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal) It was primarily used for the production of hemp. Hemp is a fabric made of the fibers that separate from the stem of the cannabis plant when it decays. Hemp fabric is extremely strong and durable, especially when compared to cotton fabric. The ancient Asians used hemp to make their clothes, fish nets and ropes. Hemp eventually became so popular that it clothed the majority of the people during the time period. “As their culture advanced, these prehistoric people replaced their animal skins with hemp cloth. At first, hemp cloth was worn only by the more prosperous, but when silk became available, hemp clothed the masses.”(Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal) Hemp was only one of many uses for the marijuana plant. The ancient Asians even found a way to use the plant seeds for food. “People in China relied on Cannabis for many more products than fiber. Cannabis seeds were one of the grains...
Words: 3444 - Pages: 14
...There is no reason for marijuana not to be legal. Why or why not should weed be legalized? Individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves, while the government only has the right to limit those choices if the individual’s actions endanger another. | Coffee is addictive. Every morning, all across America, there are people (many of them idling in their cars at a drive-thru) getting java. What happens when these people do not get their coffee on time and as anticipated? Other than a little irritability, not much happens. People seem trustable enough to drink coffee, even though that behavior often results in a life-long addiction. Tobacco is addictive. Every moment of every day and night, all across America, there are people smoking tobacco. What happens when these "smokers" do not get to light up their cigarettes on time and as anticipated? Other than a lot of irritability, not much happens. Despite the enormous number of tobacco-related deaths each year, adults are nevertheless trusted to moderate their private use of tobacco. Alcohol is addictive. Usually in the evening, but not always, there are people all across America drinking alcohol. What happens when these people do not get their alcohol on time and as anticipated? Well, depending upon the individual's level of past alcohol use, there are varying degrees of negative consequences associated with alcohol withdrawal, e.g., headache, loss of appetite, and even seizures in extreme cases. Despite the...
Words: 1348 - Pages: 6
...The Legalization of Marijuana Marijuana is a very prominent and controversial issue in society today. Although many slanderous claims have been made about cannabis in recent history, the truths are slowly starting to resurface. Unfortunately, these truths are under heavy criticism due to the stereotypical view of what people view as the typical “pot smoker.” This skewed perception of a lazy and unmotivated America is the result of over seventy years of propaganda and misinformation spread by private interests who needed cannabis illegal for their own personal gains. I strongly believe that marijuana should be legalized for all uses. Using marijuana for medicinal purposes is not a recent discovery. In fact, written references to use medical marijuana date back nearly 5,000 years. Western medicine embraced marijuana’s medical properties in the mid-1800s, and by the beginning of the 20th century, physicians had published more than 100 papers in the Western medical literature recommending its use for a variety of disorders (http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5441#f2 Accessed on June 5, 2010). These disorders include pain relief, nausea, glaucoma, and movement disorders. It is also used as a powerful appetite stimulant which helps patients that had HIV/AIDS or cancer patients going through chemotherapy. Today, thousands of patients are able to use marijuana as an effective method of treatment for their ailments. This is possible because fourteen state governments across the country...
Words: 2505 - Pages: 11
...of people die from alcohol and tobacco every year. If cannabis was legalized it would do many great things, such as create millions of new jobs. With the economy struggling right now in American this would help our country greatly. Another thing marijuana would do is eliminate the spending on preventing marijuana use in North and parts of South America. If marijuana was legal it would give our government more time to look at more important issues, instead of preventing the use and selling of cannabis. Our government could focus more on the War on Terror and prevent harsher drugs from entering the U.S. such as heroin, meth, and cocaine. Our society would completely change; marijuana would be off the streets and would be treated probably. You would see a decrease in marijuana use at a younger age because it would be more accepted in our society. Marijuana can and should be legal because it is taking one step in the right direction for our country. Marijuana’s history shows that it can be used to help people therefore it should be legal. It was used in the early centuries. Marijuana is a green, brown, or grey mixture and is made up of dried leaves and stems. Marijuana’s technical term is Cannabis, but this...
Words: 3834 - Pages: 16
...10. Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana. The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for over 75 years and yet: marijuana is now used by over 25 million people annually, cannabis is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and unsupported by the facts, and the idea that marijuana will soon be eliminated from America and the rest of the world is a ridiculous fantasy. 9. Arrests for marijuana possession disproportionately affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce the perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities. African-Americans account for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5% of annual marijuana users, however, blacks also account for 26% of all marijuana arrests. Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and Hispanics account for the majority of marijuana possession arrests in New York City, primarily for smoking marijuana in public view. Law enforcement has failed to demonstrate that marijuana laws can be enforced fairly without regard to race; far too often minorities are arrested for marijuana use while white/non-Hispanic Americans face a much lower risk of arrest. 8. A regulated, legal market in marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers, as well as reduce their exposure to other...
Words: 1167 - Pages: 5
...gateway drug that will lead to the use of harder drugs like heroin or LSD, I believe it should be legalized because medical marijuana has helped sick people where no other pharmaceutical drug could. Cannabis has been used for thousands of years. The oldest known uses have been recorded as far back as 2737 B.C. as medicine by Emperor Shen Neng of China (Advanced Holistich Health, 2013). The Chinese would later use hemp as to make clothes, shoes and rope and even paper. By the sixteenth century hemp was widely distributed in Europe where it was cultivated for fiber and the seeds were cooked with barley or other grains and eaten. In 1537 Discorides named the plant Cannabis sativa and wrote of its use for cordage as well as its medicinal properties [ (Ehrensing, 1998) ]. Back in 1619, the King of England ordered famers to grow cannabis to meet the obligations of a growing economy that used hemp as a product. This was the first law that incorporated cannabis and it was for the good of it. There were several other laws allowing the growth of cannabis over the next 200 years. Hemp was introduced to the United States in 1645 by the Puritans in New England as a fiber...
Words: 3075 - Pages: 13
